Why The Pontiac GTO Gained The Nickname 'The Judge'
Pontiac's GTO is considered by many to be Yet, when it originally dropped in for the 1964 model year, it did so as a before becoming its own vehicle. The GTO , the "GTO" standing for (in Italian) Gran Turismo Omologato or Grand Touring Homologation (in English).
It was available as a with a A like dual exhausts and wider wheels, hood scoops, an anti-roll bar, stiffer suspension, bucket seats, and all the requisite racing gauges you could want made the GTO stand out.
You could get it with an optional Tri-Power carburetor that boosted the horsepower to 348, mated to either a The , did the quarter-mile in 15.8 seconds, and had a top speed of 115 mph, while the and the quarter mile in 14.8 seconds.
A few years later, the hippie counterculture revolution emerged, and in 1969 GM released a new version of the GTO called "The Judge." It was the " and in tune with the current generation. To do this, they took inspiration from a comedy show called "Laugh-In."
Here Comes The Judge!
"Laugh-In" was one of the most popular shows on television during its . Hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, it was a fast-paced sketch show with an the likes of Lily Tomlin, Richard Dawson, Goldie Hawn, and Arte Johnson.
Sound familiar? It should, as it was the forerunner to "Saturday Night Live," which The show's title was a play on words used by the hippie movement spreading across the country at the time.
A popular skit called "Here Comes The Judge," first made famous by comedian Flip Wilson and then Rat Packer Sammy Davis, Jr., featured a judge wearing an old-time powdered wig who and then hit them with a cartoonish gavel. Davis Jr. took it to new heights with his song and dance routines.
The Judge – – was meant to be an inexpensive, stripped-down model meant to compete with Plymouth's Road Runner, but by the time GM got done, it Slogans like " to sell the car, which was on the market for . Only, making it a fairly rare version of the muscly GTO.